Tuesday, 6th August, The Feast of the Transfiguration. The Cross requires the exodus of Jesus, his death, Resurrection and glorification. The disciples have to realise that he must depart, just as they are now prepared for his going up to Jerusalem to die.
Thursday, 8th August, St Dominic, 1170-1221, a Spaniard who founded the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) to counteract the heresies of his time.
Friday, 9th August, St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) virgin and martyr, Patron of Europe. Born 1891 at Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), the youngest of seven children of a Jewish family. A brilliant student, she gained her doctorate in philosophy at twenty-five. Became a Catholic in 1922 and a Carmelite nun. Both Jewish and Catholic, she fled to Holland when the Nazis came to power but she was captured and sent to Auschwitz where she died in a gas chamber on the 9th August 1942.
Saturday, 10th August, St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr, died in 258, is seen as the cheerful giver since he was one of the seven deacons of the Roman Church in charge of the material needs of the faithful. Gifted with a sense of humour, he met his death cheerfully on a gridiron. From earliest times seen not only as a patron saint of the poor, but also of cooks.